Here, in no particular order, are some of the weird injuries to hockey players that have had very little to do with the game.

There are only a few days left to revel in the world's most famous hockey mom. When Americans go to the polls Tuesday it may be the last anyone outside Alaska sees of vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, otherwise known – even among Republicans – as an accident waiting to happen.

You could forgive the Philadelphia Flyers and St. Louis Blues if they want to see the last of this self-described pit bull with lipstick. Even though she gave the sport some unprecedented ink in the U.S. media, she was somewhat of a curse to those two NHL teams.

The Flyers invited Palin to drop the ceremonial first puck of the season. The inspired Flyers got off to a snazzy six-game losing streak (0-3-3). The Blues later invited Palin to drop the puck in St. Louis. After she did, goalie Manny Legace tripped on the red carpet and injured his hip.

Legace's unfortunate mishap is merely the latest curious casualty in a sport that's had more than its share of non-game incidents. Here, in no particular order, are some of the weird injuries to hockey players that have had very little to do with the game.

SEE YOU IN ST. LOUIS

Staying with the Blues, stud defenceman Eric Johnson tore his anterior and medial cruciate ligaments falling off a golf cart in training camp in September. Gone for the season.

In 1999 in a pre-game warmup, Blues D Al MacInnis unleashed his trademark slap shot on G Rich Parent that hit him square on the – ahem – so hard it broke his – uhh –protective cup. (It's okay to squirm.) Parent underwent emergency surgery after suffering a scrotal contusion and ruptured testicle. He missed 11 games. He has four children.

The Blues are aptly named for all their freakish injuries. Doug Wickenheiser missed most of the 1984-85 season and half of the 1985-86 season with complete tears of ACL and MCL in his left knee, an injury suffered when he fell off a pickup truck during a team hazing ritual and got hit by a (thankfully) slow-moving car.

MAYBE IT'S TEAMS IN BLUE

When he was with the Maple Leafs, Mikael Renberg had his share of problems. He once got a blister tying up his skates prior to a game in Edmonton on Dec. 28, 2003. What's wrong with that? The blister got infected. Within days he was feverish. Doctors even spoke of amputating to save his life.

Renberg had previously had his right arm slashed by a boat propeller, a summertime injury that didn't cost him any games. He fell out of his boat trying to pull up anchor while vacationing in Sweden in June 2002.

The Leafs of that era were a tad snakebit, with netminder Ed Belfour missing four games early in the 2003-04 season after cutting his finger on a skate eyelet.

BETWEEN THE PIPES

Leafs backup G Glenn Healy will never forget – because no one will ever let him – the time he cut his hand while changing the bag on his bagpipes in the summer of 2000.

SPIDER-MAN

And Wade Belak missed a game due to a spider bite. His foot swelled so much, he couldn't get it inside his skate.

CURBED ENTHUSIASM

New York Rangers captain Jean Ratelle broke his ankle stepping off a curb wrong, on the eve of the 1971-72 Stanley Cup final against the Boston Bruins.

The Bruins took the Cup in six games. Maybe there's something wrong with the streets of Manhattan, because Brian Leetch did much the same thing in 1993, breaking his ankle stepping out of a cab and slipping on ice.

PEOPLE WHO SIT ON GLASS TABLES

In the summer of 1988, NYR G John Vanbiesbrouck was sitting on a glass coffee table playing with his new video camera when the glass gave way. He reached back to break the fall, but sliced his left wrist, lacerating three tendons and suffering nerve damage.

CURTAINS FOR THE POPCORN KID

There was the time in 1978 when Leaf G Mike Palmateer showed up with a cut hand. He said he cut it while hanging curtains at 3 a.m.

UNKINDEST CUT

Bruins F Mike (Shaky) Walton fell through a plate glass door in a hotel in 1973 and cut himself for 200 stitches from the chin to the waist. It missed his jugular vein by half an inch.

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